Quickly Followed by May.

 May began with a lovely long walk to enjoy what seemed to be a crazy abundance of buttercups this spring, as well as some more lambs.

It is also a month of many birthdays including Himself’s. I took him out for dinner at our favourite pub on the night before.

We took a lovely long walk on the day itself, calling in on The Red Lion in Blewbury where he managed to take the picture for what has become his birthday tradition for over ten years now. A picture of him out celebrating a birthday drink with ‘all of his friends’ (i.e. an empty pub!)

It started when we happened to be out for the day on his birthday and called into a pub for a drink. It was early afternoon on a weekday, so after any lunchtime rush and the pub was empty apart from us.

                                                                   The first ever image

He’s been doing a short every year since and I’m not going to lie they do sometimes take some staging.

This year for example was a frantic quick snap as a couple of families left the beer garden and just before some other people walked into shot and sat down. I was also standing pressed into a hedge clutching my pint so I was out of shot! 

Goodness knows what people thought we were doing.

 

May also started with a pretty intense property visit. The woman arrived with what I assumed was a pair of latex gloves in her hand, which seemed a bit judgemental, but I guess not every property is clean.

They actually turned out to be those elasticated shoe coveralls and she did also don gloves!

I come to the conclusion she was a frustrated CSI because not only did she kit herself out like one, she also walked around the property taking pictures of every room from every angle, whilst talking into her phone!?! 

I have to confess I was not, and am still not, happy with this process. In all the 20 plus years of renting I have never had anyone taking pictures of my belongings in what is essentially my home!

I did contact our rental agency afterwards to ask exactly what happens with the photos and who gets to see them. Apparently, they are to ‘assess the condition of the property’ and are kept on file for a time with a limited amount of people seeing them. Hmm....    

 

I did an amazing queer history walking tour of Oxford through work the next day, it was absolutely fascinating, and the guide was super engaging and entertaining. Having done various walking tours of the city now it ranks up there with the best of them.  

 

The following Friday I had a half day to meet my friends Carole, Liz and Simon for lunch. We went to a pub we like where they serve yummy food and they allocated us ‘our ‘ table on arrival, which considering we only go every 6-8 weeks shows you how much of an impression we must make (oh dear!) 

The pub was fairly quiet when we arrived, but busy by the time we left. The landlady made a point of coming over to say it had been lovely to hear all our laughter filling that corner of the room and that it had been a joy to serve us. I must admit we do tend to get a bit lively when we do get together!

 

The next weekend was another bank holiday and thankfully I was working from home on the Friday, so no commute when I finished. 

There is an ice cram van that stops right outside our house in this new street we live in. As it was a hot sunny day I decided to start the weekend early and nipped out when I heard it arrive. I got served a 99 literally as big as my head, this is going to prove dangerous to my waistline….   

 

As it was a bank holiday and the weather was lovely, we decided to take ourselves off to the seaside!

We realised we hadn’t been to Weston-Super-Mare for a very long time and it is somewhere you can get to directly from our train station, so that is where we went. 

Surprisingly there was a thick sea fog when we arrived even though the morning was already warm. We walked along the seafront and by the time we reached the far end the fog was clearing and it was getting super hot and very busy. We decided to keep on walking, going past where the old pier is being restored.

We saw signs for the coastal path leading to Sand Bay so followed those even though neither of us had the right footwear for hiking. Thankfully the terrain was hilly but easy going, and also blissfully it was mostly shady woodland which was much cooler.

Sand Bay was much more chilled with sand dues and a huge expanse of beach without all the shops and food stands. 

We had a lovely walk there before turning round and heading back the way we came.  

By the time we got back to Weston it was absolutely packed, you could barely see an inch of free sand and all the pubs on the seafront were blaring out music or karaoke. 

It was just too much. Too much noise and sweating humanity I hated it so we swerved away into the town centre in search of a drink and some quiet, but it has become sadly rundown like so many of our once grand seaside towns.

We ended up back on the seafront managing to snag a table inside Brunello Lounge (a UK wide chain that are all called ‘something’ Lounge.) We had a lovely long cold drink or two, cider in my case, before braving the seafront again. 

We had thought about playing the pirate crazy golf, but as it was late afternoon by this point, we decided to head home instead. 

Not sure I will be hurrying back to Weston any time soon, it was not for me. I loved all the amazing street art though and also bought a very cute new design Lifeboat Association bear to go with my others; I now have 4 different ones. 

They are a charity that are very close to both our hearts, and I do love a teddy bear so it was a no brainer.   

 

The month ended with a day of to go to the In Bloom – How Plants Changed Our World exhibition at The Ashmolean Museum with Charlotte.

The blurb for the exhibition says ‘Beyond their beauty, many have hidden histories – tales of exploration, obsession, and knowledge. This major new exhibition takes visitors on a journey from Oxford to the farthest corners of the world and back, uncovering the global stories behind some of Britain’s most beloved blooms – from roses and tulips to camellias and peonies. Featuring over 100 artworks and objects, including drawings, paintings, rare prints, and ceramics, In Bloom explores our changing relationship with the natural world. From the fascinating stories of curiosity and ingenuity of early plant explorers to the networks that shaped global trade, this exhibition reveals how the pursuit of exotic plants transformed landscapes, economies, and cultures, leaving a legacy that still shapes our world today.’

 

The entrance to the museum has this gorgeous decorative arch outside. The partner of one of my colleagues works there and said they had a load of complaints about the plastic flowers outside and how environmentally unfriendly it was, shame on the museum for using them etc etc. They aren’t plastic flowers and they actually have a sign to say they are not. If only people would read…

 

The exhibition itself is fairly small but very interesting. Our enjoyment was slightly marred by a man who was there with his parents and a toddler, who was of course bored stiff after about 5 minutes and then became noisy and very disruptive despite the father and one of the gallery staff trying to distract them. Instead of taking the child out and maybe waiting in the play area downstairs whilst his parents finished the exhibition at their own pace, he insisted they all stayed together, eventually the child became so disruptive they had no choice but to leave, not before they had thoroughly disturbed everyone else to the point, I found it hard to properly concentrate on the rest of the exhibition. 

I did love these flowers that had been made out of decomissioned old bank notes. 

After a browse round the shop we took ourselves off to lunch in Georgina’s the little Greek café in the indoor market, before having a browse round some shops and a cup of tea upstairs at John Lewis.

It was also my brother’s birthday so in the evening I met with the family at a little pizza place in town to celebrate with pizza and wine. I had already had his present delivered to his house, a selection of different pork pies with a special chutney and vintage cheese to go with them. He is a big fan of a pork pie.

So that was May. As with April I know for a fact I bought things but it's too long ago for me to remember exactly what. Erstwilder brooches for sure to add to my ever expanding collection and maybe a frock or two...

I've started to type up June which was epic and migth end up being two posts. I'm determined to try and catch up with myself and this year.

This crazy heat has been too much for me but I did find my fashion imitating life.

  

Here's April

 Only 3 months late...

I’m sitting here melting in a puddle and trying to recall the Spring, April to be precise, and struggling.

 

I can see from my diary I met my friend Alison for lunch and a catch up on the first of the month. As usual that took place in Gails on Little Clarendon Street in Oxford, where they didn’t have any decaf tea, so I went with a rooibos (which is basically decaf.)

When I went to collect my order, the guy serving said “did you order milk with that?” and in that typical British fashion I apologised before saying yes, I had. I followed with a jokey “I bet you think that’s strange” and rather than laughing politely and moving me on, he paused and genuinely considered the question, before replying “No not really, and believe me, doing this job I have been asked for all sorts!” putting a very heavy emphasis on the ‘ALL.’

If I hadn’t have had a queue forming behind be I might of asked him for some examples!

It was lovely to catch up, and we made plans to catch up in the future which turned out to be a very exciting adventure that happened in June.

 

Looking at my pictures, I clearly took myself out for a very grey walk that weekend and I know the following weekend I had my hair done because on Thursday the 16th I was off to Germany with my Mum!

 

So, my aunt in Germany was 90 in March. My brother took my Mum out to visit as a surprise for my aunt and the cover up for this surprise was that Mum wouldn’t be able to make the birthday in March but she and I would be going in April for the wedding of one of my cousins’ daughters.

The plan was for my brother to fly out with her in March, stay the weekend then fly back leaving her there for a couple of weeks. 

One of my cousins would then fly back with her and stay a week here. In April the same thing would happen again, only this time with me flying her out.

After her first visit my Mum decided having already just been there for two weeks, she really didn’t need to stay another two weeks less than a month later. Instead she opted to come back with me after staying for a long weekend.

 

Now whilst I have seen all my cousins and their kids a fair bit over the years, it has always been when they have visited here. 

Other than various work trips, I realised I hadn’t actually visited family in Germany for well over 30 years….

I must confess I was shocked when I realised quite how long it had actually been. No real reason as to why, though I guess Himself not having a passport hasn’t helped. 

Anyway long overdue rectifying the situation. So Thursday arrived and my brother drove us to Heathrow, where we jumped on a plane. Actually almost literally as we ended up on a little shuttle bus whic took us to the end of the runway, where we got off and had to climb up a set of steps to the plane, like one of those 1950’s newsreels of a famous person, but a lot less glamourous.

 

Now I hope you are sitting down reading this next bit, because I only took hand luggage…for 4 days…and that included various gifts, plus a wedding outfit with shoes!?!

 

I’m still slightly shocked myself if I’m honest.

 

We arrived at Dusseldorf, where luckily for me the lad on immigration was far more interested in scrolling his phone than quizzing me on my intentions once I passed through into Germany.  A good job really because I had completely forgotten the address we were staying at!

My mother on the other hand it seems had a lovely chat with the girl at the desk she went through. When Mum finally emerged, it turned out the girl’s grandmother lived in the same village as my cousin, so she knew the area very well and was delighted to talk to Mum all about it. I bet the rest of the people in that queue were less than delighted to be kept waiting.

This turned out to be the theme for the weekend really; my mother was in her absolute element all weekend, talking nineteen to the dozen to everyone and anyone whilst I just went with the flow!  

For context I just don’t have an ear for languages, any languages. I was utterly hopeless at German and French at school, and apparently as a baby I would scream hysterically every time my Mum spoke German. She eventually she gave up trying to bring me up bilingual. 

So basically, whilst after a few days I can kind of pick up the gist of a conversation, my spoken German is non-existent. I do regret it, and have tried since, but I just can’t seem to grasp it. I’m incredibly lucky pretty much everyone there has extremely good spoken English.

 

My cousin Jorg and his eldest daughter Chiara were waiting for us at the airport and whisked us straight to the house of my other cousin Claus for a joint birthday party for his wife Giti and the groom Nelson.

 The whole family were there so it was pretty much full on from the first moment which was pretty much the rest of the weekend too. We ate pizza and birthday cake before heading back to Jorg’s house to unpack and sleep. 

The next morning Jorg was up early to fetch fresh bread for breakfast, a standard habit in this area where you either collect or have fresh rolls delivered each day. I kind of feel sad that we don’t do this in the UK. 

His daughters Chiara and Gina came over bringing my aunt, and we had a lovely lazy and noisy breakfast. With Mum and I handing out the gifts we had brought.

Once they left we spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon running pre-wedding errands as well as going to buy wonderful fresh asparagus and strawberries at this farm witha windmill. Very Dutch you might think and it is, more of that shortly...

My family live in an area that is very rural and it was high asparagus season when we visited. They eat white asparagus (it’s actually quite hard to get the green version we eat in the UK) it looks a bit odd but is absolutely delicious.

Jorg also did a detour to the village my Mum grewe up in so I could see the old house and also just how much everything had changed. All the fields opposite are now covered in houses so I was completely confused.

In the afternoon we dropped off some tables and cutlery at Claus and Gitti’s house then parked up and went for a lovely walk in the woods close to where they live. 

As a child I knew you could easily walk to the Dutch border but I hadn’t realised just how on the border they all live. 

At one point on our walk you could step one way and be in The Netherlands, another and be in Belgium, or step back and be back in Germany!

That evening we drove deep into the woods to this lovely Italian restaurant. Chiara and Gina are both gluten intolerant, and really really struggle to eat in restaurants in Germany. They are always blown away at how many options you have here and Gina literally bought up the ‘free from’ aisle in Sainsbury’s when she and her partner drove over for a visit last year. This restaurant not only serves great food, it’s one of the few places with a gluten free option. I found it crazy to get my head around how this absolutely huge and extremely busy restaurant is just slap bang in the middle of a forest with nothing else near it for miles.

 

The next day we were up early, breakfasted on lovely fresh bread, boiled eggs and cheese before getting into our wedding finery. 

The venue was again in the middle of woodland and was all that was left of a monastery that had been destroyed by Napolean’s army apparently.

Thankfully, it was a gorgeous sunny day because the whole wedding party was left waiting outside because the ceremony before hadn’t finished yet!

It turned out there were actually seven weddings on that day, so it did feel like we were on a bit of a production line, in one door and out another. Luckily, the grounds were huge with area’s cordoned off for each party. 

Mum and I had a bit of a wander about and also thoroughly enjoyed looking at the different bridal outfits. We drank prosecco and ate these delicious traditional donut type treats that Nelson’s Mum had made whilst the pictures were taken before finally heading back to Claus and Gitti’s house for a buffet and cake. Eventually my aunt decided she had had enough so we left with Jorg to drive her back to her flat because she was insisting I see it. From there it was back to Jorg’s to change into comfortable clothes and eat some dinner. He goes to bed very early so left us enjoying a bottle of wine and watching the German equivalent of Strictly which was pretty awful sadly, the UK format is a million times better.

 

The next day started with another delightful breakfast, and this from the woman who doesn’t even like bread and actually only eats it so she can have butter, which she loves a bit too much. 

We set to work with my cousin preparing the asparagus whilst mum peeled potatoes and I hulled and chopped strawberries.

By late lunchtime Chiara and her husband Simon arrived with my aunt closely followed by Gina and Willie. Jorg had cooked for an army, but every little scrap went. It was so simple, just steamed asparagus with boiled potatoes and either melted butter or hollandaise sauce but it was utterly delicious, just so fresh and tasty. The strawberries I ate just as they were, bliss. I hate adding sugar to them and also the to me strange habit in Germany of adding sugar to cream.

My aunt arrived with an old photo album that was filled with amazing black and white pictures even my Mum can't remember having seen before. Mum had a lovely time reminiscing  andpointing out old friends and relatives, we both thought my aunt had more than a passing resemblance to Ava Gardner in many of the pictures. Unfortunately the album got whisked away before I could get my phone out and take some copies to save. I did snap this picture that hangs in my cousin's hallway, it's of my aunt and uncle shortly after they got married. It's such a lovely picture.

Once we had eaten plans were discussed for how to spend the rest of the day. 

There was a medieval fayre we had driven past the day before which we were going to go to, but my aunt decided she wanted to go and see bluebells. 

The girls and their other halves left and we all got in my cousin’s car only to drive to the next town because my aunt had now decided she wanted to walk around the small lake there and get ice cream! Thankfully the heavy rain had cleared, and whilst it was cool, it was dry and sunny.

I thought the pink blossom was so pretty. My mum and my aunt both love a tree, how alike do they look? I've never really noticed it before, I swear they have got more alike as they have got older.

I had thought the last evening would be quiet, but no, the whole family arrived! We ended up ordering take out there were so many people, but it was a fun way to finish the holiday.

Our final morning Jorg had got up super early to fetch his partner Betina who is a teacher, and had been on a school trip to Rome with about 200 11-18 year olds!?! They had driven there in a fleet of coaches and she said never, ever again!!

 It was lovely to see again her if only briefly, and to also meet one of her sons in person (he called in to collect something on his way back to university.)

Claus and Gitti arrived to take Mum and I to the airport, via my aunt’s flat because she had forgotten to give my Mum something and insisted we call in for it!

The flight home was super busy, at one point I was worried we would get bumped but thankfully we didn’t. 

Annoyingly they did make us check our bags after we had deliberately managed with small cases to avoid just that! We had to wait forever at baggage claim, I had literally just gone to file them as missing when they finally came through!

 

I was back at work 3 days before I had another day off. The plan was to go on a circular walk near Woodstock with Soo, something she has done a few times but knew I would love because there would be bluebells. 

It didn’t disappoint. There were indeed bluebells, galore as well as lambs, hares and birdlife in abundance. 

We also found a midden where I got very excited and Soo got to see a side of me she had never seen before! The one who used to go bottle digging as a teenager, I would have happily spent hours there, but she managed to persuade me away.

We ended up stopping at the museum in Woodstock for a much-needed cup of tea and slice of homemade cake, in my case a delicious courgette and sultana tea loaf.   

 

Well that was April.

 

I know for a fact there would have been craft projects, books read and unnecessary things purchased but frankly it’s too long ago for me to remember….

Of Course I'm Late For March Too

 Picking up where I left off (too many weeks ago) March started with the afternoon of the 1st at my Brother and Sister in law’s house, not only to celebrate her Dad’s birthday but to discuss all things wedding with Nephew Number One and his fiancée (plus meet her parents for the first time.)  It was a lovely somewhat chaotic time with some of my brother’s friends and my Mum there too and all of us crammed into the kitchen because the weather turned and it was freezing and pouring with rain.

 Saturday 7th we headed out to meet Soo and Gav who had invited us to join them for dinner at the delightful Talbot Inn. They had a voucher to spend there and asked us along, we were delighted to accept. 

We headed over at midday and took a long walk through Wytham Woods. The walk was lovely, but sadly the day was not and by the end of it we were all feeling the cold.

So we decamped straight to The Talbot for hot drinks, followed by beer before taking our table for our dinner booking. 

                                                   Very Uncanny-esque shelter in Wytham Woods!

Due to all the recent rain, we were quite muddy and I felt terrible for leaving a trail in my wake, but as Soo pointed out this is a pub in the countryside so they are more than used to walkers!

We all ended up eating homemade burgers, mine came with mushroom and stilton and was delicious. As was the passion fruit posset I had for pudding, I’ve never had posset before so it had to be done. Suitably replete we rolled outside, said our goodbyes and caught the bus back into Oxford, then the train home.

 

The next week was full on for work, so it was nice to have something fun to end the week with. A play at The Old Fire Station in Oxford. I was rather shocked to realise I actually hadn’t been to the venue since the 1990’s when I used to go there to see bands!

It was interesting to see what they have done with the place since as it is now a local arts venue and café. I was pointing out to Himself where the old bar and stage used to be, less nice was the fact the toilets have not really improved since I last used them all those years ago, let’s just say tired and leave it at that.

We decided to buy a drink to take in with us which was became whole drama in itself. I can only assume there had been had some sort of staffing crisis that night, and a desperate call had gone out for reinforcements, it was all slightly chaotic. Judging by his stunning make-up and jewellery, the poor guy roped into manning the bar had been halfway through getting ready for an incredible night out before being thrust behind the drinks counter. 

He gamely did his best bless him, but this was clearly his first time serving drinks to the paying public. It was all very slow with lots of rushing round trying to find things or asking for help. He didn’t seem to have a clue when it can to bottles of beer, just handing them over straight from the shelf and then looking perplexed when asked if they could please be opened first. It took a good 5 minutes to locate the bottle opener and after a very cackhanded attempt with the first bottle the people in the (now huge) queue started opening their own bottles for speed, and to make sure the full contents made it into their plastic cup! 

The plus side for the people buying wine was a huge glassful, as those were poured by eye and not by measure, though the people looking for soft drinks ended up having to nip behind the café counter and retrieve them themselves from the fridge!

I’m glad to say everyone in the queue took it in great spirit (no pun intended) and with some audience participation everyone had their drink in hand when we were called to take our seats. 

 

Having never been to a play here before, I didn’t realise there isn’t a stage as such, you literally sit right in amongst the actors. The differing heights of the seating coming from the leg length of the seats themselves. Thankfully, we didn’t end up in the front row where the very short leg length of the chairs would have proved a challenge to someone who is tall and long legged!

The play we had come to see was Black Coffee by Agatha Christie; a Poirot play that was never made into a book in her lifetime. It was performed by a local theatre group, and we both thoroughly enjoyed the production. In particular the actor playing Poirot was excellent.

It felt like a stark contrast to the disappointing show we had seen at the New Theatre the previous week.

Having said that I did have a beef, and it was a pretty big one, the costumes….

At first, I did charitably wonder if perhaps the cast had dressed themselves in that way someone who finds themselves in a period piece might take themselves to the local charity shop and think this is on the vintage rail so it must be right. But no, on leaving the venue we saw there was actually someone named on the programme as the wardrobe mistress!

There were two big issues for me, the first I will admit is niche and only bugged me because I love vintage. I knew the clothing was for the most part, from completely the wrong eras. The play was set in the early 1930’s so pre-WW2 and unfortunately you had anything but the 1930s on the stage.

Admittedly, most people probably wouldn’t have even noticed so they could have got away with it, except some of the clothing was so spectacularly wrong EVERYONE noticed. When one character walked on the whole audience actually laughed, which I really felt for him. His 1970’s suit was absolutely bloody magnificent, a real thing of glory, but with its huge lapels and insanely mahoosive flares he looked like he should have been playing a pimp in Starsky and Hutch, or some other 1970’s American cop show. I gather from friends who went on different nights his suit got the same reaction every time.

 

The glaring period error that really bothered me though, was the heroine’s handbag, and would you believe it I actually unwittingly contributed to that error!?!

Now the handbag is actually pivotal to the plot and I think the wardrobe person must have thought ok it’s a plot device so let’s make sure it’s nice big noticeable bag, but really, what young, glamourous 1930’s newly wed would take a huge cream Margaret Thatcher-esque ‘handbagger’ bag to dinner with her? I mean seriously.

Colour-wise it clashed with her outfit, it was the wrong style, the wrong era, the wrong everything. I wanted to jump out of my seat and hurl it across the stage!

And you know what made it worse? It was once my bloody bag; I recognised it immediately! It was one of the ones I had donated to Oxfam’s vintage shop when we moved house and I was in the throes of panicky packing and decluttering.

 

The second big wardrobe issue Himself commented on immediately as we left, as did my friends who went on other nights. This was the actual state the clothes the actors were wearing. All the men’s suits had been altered by letting the trouser hems down, and in the case of Poirot the cuffs of his suit jacket as well, but none of them had been pressed or steamed. Such a simple thing to do and it would have made such an incredible difference, the creases were so noticeable, and to have Poirot who is famous for his fastidious dressing, with old hem creases and even a cuff hanging out on one side but not the other, well it really jarred. Another character was trailing threads as he walked, the work of a moment to snip them off, it was all the more noticeable because we were right there up close and personal with the cast.

Anyway, rant over and other than that it was a lovely night out.

 

I finished off the month with a day out with Soo. I took a Friday off work and headed over to her house for a visit to a lovely garden centre near Charlbury as Soo has a voucher to spend. It was a real test of strength for me because I am banned from buying any more plants by Soo and god, I could have bought many, so so many. The prices were good and so was the range, in the end I was given permission to buy one lovely pale blue primula because it was reduced to 50p. Weeps.

Soo thought it was going to be a challenge to spend her voucher as she doesn’t garden but she found a lovely wall plaque and even bought some reduced cut and come again herbs which she has since planted in a trough just outside her back door. 

There was also a mad moment where we coincided in a doorway with an elderly lady, she coming from the right and we from the left, it was big enough for us to walk through side by side so I smiled politely at her and we all moved forward. This was just as a member of staff walked towards us to go out through the said doorway. She and the elderly lady clearly knew each other, so she said a cheery hello and asked ‘How’s George’ ‘He died last week’ was the reply from the elderly lady and just like that we were suddenly both trapped in this very awkward conversation! We put on suitably I’m so sorry to hear that faces and sort of slowly edged away…   

We decided to eat lunch at the garden centre in their little restaurant, and the food was so delicious. I had a cauliflower and broccoli cheese bake thing that literally gave me the cheese sweats there was so much on there! It was bliss.     

From there we drove into Charlbury itself. Soo calls it her nemesis because she always gets lost when she walks round the village. She says it’s roughly based on a star shape and she finds it confusing. Anyway other than visiting the annual beer festival I have never looked round and it was stunning; no wonder it has become THE Cotswold holiday spot for the rich and famous. Of course I had forgotten my camera! and was cursing myself because I could have taken so many gorgeous pictures. 

I did take one picture with my phone (which has a rubbish camera) of the two goats who tried to eat my bag!

Luckily, I have a pretty good sense of direction, and even though we just wondered all over following random footpaths, I managed to get us back to the car. We did dive into the Co-op for a cold drink which we sat and drank on a bench on the village green. 

Soo got the best look ever off two ladies who walked past just as she said “ and that taught me to never, ever, put a dead body in a wheelie bin again” I about died laughing at their horrified faces (for the record she was talking about a pigeon that sadly flown into her patio window and broken it’s neck.)

We also bought pizza for tea as I was staying the night, and we had a fab evening drinking wine and watching TOTP2 and Gogglebox before falling down the rabbit hole of videos on YouTube. I had been suffering from insomnia at the time so felt a bit bad that So ended up sitting up with me until 3.30am before we finally called it a night.

 

The next day was another gorgeous sunny day so we caught the bus into Oxford, getting off at Osney and taking a lovely walk down the tow path into the city centre. We mooched the shops before buying a sandwich for lunch and meeting Soo’s other half Gav for his lunch break. Soo was meeting her friend Chris and Himself was at a leaving drinks for a work colleague, so we decamped to The Grapes and they both met us there. It got silly busy with the football on, so we headed over to White Rabbit for another drink before Soo and Chris headed off to their comedy show and Himself and I caught the train home.  

And that was March. 

 

I know I definitely bought some things in March, if nothing else my Erstwilder collecting goes on expanding with their monthly releases. 

I finally got round to labelling the draws I store them in, as you can see I am rapidly running out of space…

I’m going through a bit of a green phase at the moment and bought these two dresses from Finery 

and this lovely blouse from Sugarhill.  

I have also carried on with the cross stitching and fell in love with the crow on this cushion kit I found in T K Maxx, I didn't like the whole of the design so I adapted the background.

I ’m going to try and get April and May typed up and out before too much longer, but given the way I’ve been going so far this year, don’t hold your breath.